EDITORIAL: Well done, Mooseheads

Led by talented players such as Nathan MacKinnon, the Halifax Mooseheads made history this season with the franchise's first QMJHL title. (INGRID BULMER / Staff)

The promise of a special season was there even before the first puck dropped in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League last fall.

Led by first round draft picks Nate MacKinnon, Jonathon Drouin and Zach Fucale and stocked with talented players throughout their lineup, the Halifax Mooseheads looked the class of the league. But, as the cliche goes, games must be won not on paper but on the ice.

The Mooseheads had made the President's Cup finals twice before, coming tantalizingly close in 2003 before losing in seven games to the Hull Olympiques, then being swept two years later by the Sidney Crosby-led Rimouski Oceanic.

This year, however, they would not be denied. It took nineteen seasons, but the Halifax Mooseheads are QMJHL champions.

Capping a record-breaking season, the Mooseheads did it in style, vanquishing the Baie Comeau Drakkar 5-1 Friday night in front of their home fans at the sold-out Metro Centre to win the final series in five games.

Not since the Cape Breton Oilers won the AHL's Calder Cup in 1993 has a Nova Scotia-based team won one of hockey's bigger prizes.

Congratulations to the team, coach Dominique Ducharme, general manager Cam Russell and the rest of the Mooseheads' staff, and, of course, to team owner Bobby Smith.

This championship's genesis really dates to 2011, when a bevy of draft picks and smart trades brought Halifax a nucleus of exceptional young hockey talent.

This year, all that talent and depth bloomed as the Mooseheads ran roughshod over the rest of the league, finishing 27 points ahead of the pack.

All season, Mooseheads' fans were treated to what may prove to be the finest collection of major junior hockey players to ever play together for a Nova Scotia-based team. On Friday night, the Mooseheads capped their QMJHL year by winning the championship while losing just a single playoff game.

The Mooseheads now head for their second-ever Memorial Cup, starting next week in Saskatoon. Halifax hosted the Memorial Cup in 2000, when they finished third.

We know all Mooseheads' fans are looking forward to watching their team and its young stars – three of whom, in MacKinnon, Drouin and Fucale, are all expected to go in the first round of the NHL draft next month -- in Saskatoon.